Australia Day - My Creative Sketches

Welcome.

Another scrap page which features myself but this time also the much cuter daughter of mine Chloe. The photo is a selfie taken on Australia day this year. I'm a proud Aussie so had to scrap it!

If you haven't noticed before one of my favourite scrappy companies is Bella Blvd and so last year I brought one of their warehouse boxes which was full of awesome goodies!!! But I couldn't deny that I was a little (very little) bit disappointed when the largest proportion was American related. Nothing against America but I wondered if I would ever be able to use it (I don't even have a passport let alone travel plans). Then it drawn on me, although our countrys supportive colours are green and gold our flag is also red blue and white. 

The layout design was inspired by the April Sketch at My Creative Sketches. I love this sketch bog not only do they have AWESOME sketches and AWESOME prizes but they finish mid-month which that is perfect for a scrapper like me that doesn't get as much time to scrap as they'd like and tends to fiddle with the page for AGES before it sees any glue!

The pattern paper is from the Bella Blvd 'All American' range, which complimented the Australia flag clothing we are both wearing. While the 'love this place' card is from the recent 'Family Forever' collection, I was super excited to use it on this page because I DO love this country and anywhere with my kiddies!

Along with the Bella Blvd goodies I have used a number of chipboard pieces. The strip of stars has simply been painted also the title (but about 50 million times because I kept changing my mind which colour I wanted it, I think it has double in height). I began with the banner by painting the 'string' edge in grey then I stuck down a very old Ruby Rock-it pattern paper of Aussie flags and trimmed it to size.

And you can't have something Australia without an "Aussie" "OI!" which I has been stamped. By then end of the day I nearly had Chloe shouting this with me, we will perfect it ready for next year!

Thanks for dropping by.

XoXoX Nicole

My Intentions - MME

HELLO!
I'm finally back again. April just threw by! Busy, busy it was.
I bring to you today a scrap page that was a looooong time in the making! Please tell me I'm not the only one who prints the photo and gathers the supplies and writes out the journalling, maybe even draws a quick diagram of the to-be page and then files it away with the best INTENTION of creating it some future free time. FREE time, ha, yeah right!! And hence the layout never gets done. Are there others like me...?
This is one of THOSE pages!

My Intentions 2014

This page began way back in January. When much of the scrappy world were creating the 'one-word' (still not even sure what that means) and new years resolutions pages. My Minds Eye had a 14 things for 2014 challenge and I intended (there's that word again) on playing along. So I printed the photo, wrote out my list and gathered the supplies. And. Yep. Filed it away for another day...
Fast forward to now and the month of May and MME have done it again. This months challenge is to 'use enamel dots in a creative way' which immediately reminded me of dot points and that list I had written many months ago.

The original list was a bit longer (14 things to be exact) and was a mix of a new years resolution/ideas/to-do list. I decided to narrow it down into what I would really like to improve on and knowing that no one is perfect I decided they were my intentions, not an exact goal that could be ticked off.

They are:

• Eat better - I'm a grazer. I tend to slowly pick at what ever is readily available over the day then sit down to a defined meal. Not something I want my kids to learn.
• Stay off my mobile phone - I think we are all guilty of quickly having a flick through social media in a spare minute but when 30 mins later your still staring at the screen, its not cool.
• Make memories - do stuff, try things, love it, hate it, find out. 
• No wasting - in all areas. Time is a big one! I'm a procrastinator at the gold medal level. Also food, plan meals ahead of time to use what we have.
• Be outdoors - we have a great back yard now and I don't think we use it enough. With Jayce still being young sometimes its just easier to set up fort inside. No more. Fresh air, cool breeze, dirt. Get out there!
• Scrap more - so I can remember more of this year and the kids at this age.

I want to do these things each day, every day, TODAY! And I used the word 'today' as much as possible in this layout and outlined/drew over it whenever it appeared to really emphasis it. Like I said, I'm a procrastinator from way back, so if I'm going to do it, do it TODAY. NOW!

Anyway. There they are. My intentions for 2014. Hopeful I can stick to them with only a few lapses hey I'm only human. 

I have to say a huge thank you to MME for the two times inspiration to get this page day!! THANK YOU! This page would not have happened without them and these goals would be long forgotten by now (heck I would of forgotten about them the moment the new years hangover kicked in)

And I suppose I can't sign off without the revelation that this is my first page EVER to not feature any of my kiddies. Shock. Horror. *falls of chair* Bye.

This is Awesome - Scrap Africa

So. Turns out it has been a little while since I've been on here. My bad. But I now once again have a fully functional computer! YAY!! And as of about 1 minute ago, a scrapbooking layout to share.
The page doesn't really have a specific title, I just really liked the photos. Although the middle shot may look a little like the annoying 'duck face' pics teenagers are doing these days, it is actually our cranky face.

The layout and overall design came from a challenge at Scrap Africa. Sketch no.28.

Loved this sketch the moment I saw it! Seriously, loved it! I have chosen to use three pictures rather then one but other then that have kept very true to the sketch! 

I love film strips in scrap pages esp with photos in them. How ever I am one of the unfortunate scrappers that don't have an electronic cutting machine (or even a die cutting machine) and hence made my own. I used a strip of plain black cardstock and punch rectangles around the edge with a Fiskars small rectangle punch. Was surprisingly difficult to make sure I had straight lines...

I wanted a fun feel to the page and going along with the film strip/selfie/photo theme, I knew that Bella Blvds 'Snapshots' collection was the one for this! And only used Bella Blvd products.

I have used the Snapshots 'Family Chaos' as my background as so many of the doodles fit with the photos and my feelings about them. To highlight these and give the piece a bit extra interest I coloured/outlined alot of it.

This time I chose to avoid using my handwriting as the background had so much and printed the basic who what where when and why in strips.

That's all from me. I'm off to bed. 

XoXoX Nicole.

Smiles of Chloe - Sassy & Sketch N Scrap

* Please note I am still battling away posting from my pfiestawhile my computer is out of action. Please excuse poor picture and content quality. Thank you. *

So first up I'll start with an update on the computer situation. I have it back my hot little hands and all my photos are still there! YAY! I must say a huge thank you to my techy friend who prefromed the miracle for me! Thank you thank you thank you! However before I return it to its previous duties I want to do some TLC on it!

Now onto why your really here. I have a scrapbooking page to share.

For this page I have compined two scrap challenges. The first is the March mood board over at Sassy Scrappers, below. Without this mood board the layout would not have happened.

http://sassyscrappers1.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/its-new-month-and-another-great.html

I had taken these photos of Chloe just a day before I'd seen this board. The colours and florals reminded me of the dress she was wearing so I printed them immediately. The bottom right picture inspired me to use the jillibean frames around my two favourite photos.

The layout of the page was based on a sketch at Sketch N Scrap here (

http://sketchnscrap.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/sketch-n-scrap-53.html )

When you ask chloe to smile you could receive a wide range of looks, on this occasion I got two of them. My two most favourite. The nose scrunchie and the cranky glare. I kinda split the page in a way with the two 'smiles'

The top section featuring the cranky face and sub title life. The bottom section the nose scrunchie.

I have used the October Afternoon 'Midway' papers and chipboard pieces which I coloured with sharpie markers and placed on the photos making them extra fun! The photo booth paper was extra perfect for this page and the shots either side sums it up nicely.

I flirted with alot of different titled for my page (its normally the easy part) I looked up different quotes and long winded essays but eventually settled with just a simple description of the photos (at 3:30am while up with a non sleeping infant, thanks Jayce)

Oh how I wish I had a sewing machine just for my paper crafts! Instead I will stick to drawing it on and outlining everything.

Thanks for dropping in.

XoXoX Nicole

Pub Swagger - Glitz Design & The Scrapbook Store

* Please note I am still battling away posting from my phone while my computer is out of action. Please excuse poor picture and content quality. Thank you. *

So I thought it was about time I did a layout of just Jayce. It is no secret that my partner and I like to have the occasional beer. And we are very fortunate that the pubs near us have children friendly zones, some even play areas and petting zoos. 

Anyway, the local had a huge Christmas festival that we wanted to take our kiddies to but by the time both kids were awake and happy we missed most of the action. But did manage to snap this photo of Jayce chilling out.

When I was looking back at my printed photos this one jumped out at me and once I saw the sketch at The Scrapbook Store (here) I knew it had to be scrapped Immediately!

Glitz Designs 'Dapper Dan' was the absolute perfect match with this layout. Both for the colours and styling. The sticker below sealed the deal!

I had all the elements to this page cut and arranged but something was stopping me from sticking it all down, it needed something and I wasnt sure what. So I headed over to the Glitz Design company blog for a bit of inspiration where I discovered their month challenges, one of which to use a roller doodle on your project. I had my answer!

I have used two different roller doodles the woodgrain along the vertical edge and the triangles as a horizontal element on the page.

Once I'd used the roller doodles I was able to happily glue it all into place.

Mothers you may want to lock up your daughters when this guy will be allowed to hit the town!! 

XoXoX Nicole

Dancing Spirit - 123 Challenge

* Please note I am still battling away posting from my phone while my computer is out of action. Please excuse poor picture and content quality. Thank you. *

Welcome to my slice of the Internet. I have with me a scrapbooking page to share. I am finally recording more of the everyday moments and things that my kiddies DO rather then the 1 in a million picture perfect shots.
Chloe loves to dance/jump/spin/generally run around like crazy! When I'm in the kitchen she often dances to the ABC, so one day a just sat there and held my camera button down while she did her thing.

Inspiriation for this page came from the 1 2 3 challenge blog. The Febuary challenge went up a bit late so has been extended until March 22nd it can be found here 

http://123-challenge-blog.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/finally-fberuary-123-challenge.html

Colour: Purple. Well there is plenty of that. I think this is as close to a monochrome layout as I will ever get.

Word: Spirit. It is front and centre (technically bottom and right) in the title. 

Technique: Texture. It is hard to portray this through pictures but it's there. I have used texture paste, foam, glitter glue and sequins.

I enjoyed working with so many photos on the one page. My theory is more photos equals more story. It did make embelliahing and arranging a little more difficult, to fix this I used the 3rd dimension height. (Again hard to photo)

Ok, I have to be honest. This page took me a lot longer then what I thought/hoped it would. I knew instantly the general look, squares/rectangles in a diagonal small to big and back again. However just when I thought it was done I'd look back at it and think something is missing. I got to the stage below and considered calling it a day but it wasn't quite right and was described as "not fun enough"

Looking back at it again I still wonder if the right bottomish is still a little lacking.

Since painstakingly typing this up on my phone (seriously this is not easy) I have thought of a possible addition which might fix this and add even more texture. Not sure if I should or not. What do you think? Take it a step further? Leave it as is? Or have I already gone too far? Let me know.

XoXoX Nicole.

Daily Drive - Scrap365 & Simple Stories

* Please note I am still battling away posting from my phone while my computer is out of action. Please excuse poor picture and content quality. Thank you. *

Hello. So I broke my word and printed a new photo to scrap but I'm sure when you see the photo you'll forgive me. It was printed direct from my phone so there had been no editing or anything. This is the picture exactly as it was taken and I think it's a good one.

This is a common sight in my review mirror and it makes me super happy! I couldn't help snapping a quick pic of it one day, safely of course.

I based the layout design on the sketch over at Scrap365 ( http://scrap365.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/happy-sketch-day.html )

I loved this sketch instantly and knew exactly what I wanted to create. Simple Stories Daily Grind collection was the perfect match for this page. I have used it exclusively.

In my usual style, I have kept very true to the sketch. I loved the prompts to put lots of little bits around the photo.

You will notice my own way less then perfect hand writing twice on this page. I am trying my best to journal more, especially about the bigger picture rather then the direct photo content.

Another of the littles things about my kiddies preserved on a page to remember for ever (and remind them that they did love one another once upon a time)

XoXoX Nicole

Kiss Kiss Hug Hug - Kraft It Up

*Please note I am still battling away posting from my phone while my computer is out of action. Please excuse poor picture and content quality. Thank you *

Hello. So I'm still keeping to my word to scrap older pre-printed pictures of the kids while I'm in a technology black out. And today I have a page from when they first meet. 

I was inspired to finally scrap this special moment of Chloe giving her new brother a gentle kiss from the Febuary Kraft It Up challenge which can be found here http://kraftitup.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/design-team-febuary-july-feb-challenge.html

The challenge is to scrap something you love using a kraft cardstock background. Have I mentioned before that I love these kids...? 

Well I do just a little bit though... And love this photo of them! It shows just how quickly Chloe knew to be gentle and began to care for him!

Once again the title was cut way back in September from my Auntys cricut, along with all the other paper elements on the page! 

I loved these banner letters as soon as I saw them and quickly cut out my signature line 'XoXoX', a perfect match for the photo and title!

As I already had many embellishments for this page I decided to give myself an extra challenge and not use any other paper! I was completely lost in the beginning but remembered my new found love of getting messy and using the awesome anything goes with it kraft cardstock created my own busy background with paints, stamps, washi tape and twine.

Avoiding any paper really was difficult for me! It is the scrap item I have the most of by far! When it came time to stick the picture down I noticed it was disappearing into my created bussyness, normally I'd mat it but no other paper... hmm... instead I used strips of ribbon around each edge and added some knots for interest.

About time I scrapped this one hey.

XoXoX Nicole.

You 2 Warm My Heart.

*Please note I am still battling away posting from my phone while my computer is out of action. Please excuse poor picture and content quality. Will update them once I'm back online. Thanks.*

I'm back. How is everyone else going?
I have stuck to my word and created a page using older already printed photos during my technology lull.
First up is a layout with my two kiddies laying together on the couch.

I took inspiration from the February sketch over at The Creative Sketch blog run by The Creative Scrapbook ( 

http://mycreativesketches.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/february-sketch.html ). 

I think it was the hearts in the sketch that prompted me to use these together with the Love collection from Bo Bunny.

The title was cut out on my Auntys Cricut while visiting way back in September last year, like I said I had this photo printed for a while... The original cut file reads 'you warm my heart' but by cutting out the number 2 and a shadow for it the same colour as the titles shadow I was easily able to edit it.

In amongst the Cricut cartrigdes I found these super cute heart stick pins (if this page doesn't convinve you of my love for hearts I dont know what will!) and cut a bunch in different colours. I think you will be seeing more of them creep into my layouts now I've rediscovered them.

Washi tape is all the rage atm. It is a scrapbooking supply that I love and buy but seldom use. This is something I aim to change starting with this page. I've snuck 3 different styles in there and they can be the perfect touch.

I am slowly getting more brave/confident with inks and paints. And have randomly stamped some Kaisercraft texture stamps around the background then painted some stenciled hearts once everything was stuck down.

Thanks for stopping by.

XoXoX Nicole.

3 Months Old - ACC

Hey hi everyone!
So I have a little bit of good new with quite a lot of bad news but hoping for a good outcome...
So the bad news starts with me almost completely destroying my laptop! It is totally unusable for at least 2 weeks. More bad news, I hadn't backed up my photos for a LONG time! So whether I will have any baby photos of Chloe or Jayce is yet to be seen. Fingers crossed!! And hence in the mean time I can't print off any photos to scrap but hopefully that means I meant get around to scraping photos I've had printed for awhile.
Good news. I had finished a couple of layouts just before my technological meltdown and can share them through my phone. Picture quality and blog content may be a bit diminished but here goes:

3 months old

The subject of the page is pretty straight forward, Jayce is 3 months old on this day.

The layout design came from the Febuary sketch over at Annas Craft Cupboard (ACC).

I kept very close to the sketch, the only change is not immediately noticeable. I couldn't decide which photos I liked the most so turned the photo spots into photo flaps by simply folding over a piece of white cardstock.

The page is almost entirely Simple Stories, mostly Daily Grind. I like all the lil bits and pieces they bring out with their collections.

Along with them I've used a Kaisercraft cogs mask with black dylusions spray in three spots then used it as a stamp in the top right corner.

I have also used the '3' tag from the photos as part of the title, bit of a size comparison. 

Other then those, two WOW Chipboard cogs and a Lil' Something Else flair bagde and page complete.

XoXoX Nicole